By
Michael Ireland, Senior Reporter, ASSIST News Service,
EGYPT
(ANS, June 22, 2016) -- To convert away from Islam is "treason" that
should carry the death penalty, according to Sunni Islam’s topmost religious
authority.
"The
penalty for an open apostate, departing from the community, is well stipulated
in Sharia," Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayyib declared on Egypt television
last week, as reported by World Watch Monitor (www.worldwatchmonitor.org).
.
Al-Azhar is a major
ideological force behind the propagation of Islam in non-Muslim countries.
Al-Azhar University is a university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar
Mosque in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is
renowned as "Sunni Islam’s most prestigious university.”
"An
apostate must be pressed upon to repent within a variable period of time or be
killed," el-Tayyib stated, reiterating Islam’s traditional position during a
June 16 episode of a daily TV program featuring him.
World
Watch Monitor explained the ‘Good Imam’ TV program is broadcast every day during
the Muslim month of Ramadan, a time of fasting, intense worship and increased
zeal across the Islamic world. Shown over Egypt’s state TV, it is also broadcast
by several private satellite channels across the Arab world and Muslim
diaspora.
World
Watch Monitor said that in Islam, “apostasy manifests itself as crime ... that
has to incur a disciplining punishment.”
"[Preaching]
apostasy stems from a hatred against Islam and a premeditated desire to work
against it. As such it constitutes in my belief high treason and a departure
from the community and what it holds sacred," the official portal of Al-Azhar
quoted el-Tayyib as saying.
Started
over a millennium ago as a centre of Shiite power, Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque has
since become renowned as "Sunni Islam’s most prestigious university." Currently,
it serves as a main ideological and logistical backer of worldwide Islamic
missionary work.
"The
broad consensus of Islamic theology, including the Prominent Scholars of [Sunni
Islam’s] Four Schools, judge apostasy to be criminal," el-Tayyib said. "They are
all in agreement that an apostate must be pressed upon to repent within a
variable period of time or be killed.
"One
is to employ dialogue and debate in the hope the apostate would repent, which in
itself speaks for a measure of flexibility in that an apostate is not killed
outright," el-Tayyib said, describing converts from Islam as "blind at heart"
for leaving "the Religion of Original Nature."
In
el-Tayyib’s home country of Egypt, where Sharia is not fully implemented,
converts to Christianity are not sentenced to death. Other charges are often
levelled against them to keep them in jail for lengthy periods of time, as in
the current case of Mohammed Hegazy, imprisoned since December 2013. Mohammed
Hegazy was the first Egyptian Muslim convert to Christianity to seek official
recognition of his conversion from the Egyptian government.
Hegazy,
is an Egyptian convert from Islam who goes by the Christian name Bishoy Armeya
Boulo. He was sentenced to five years in prison on June 18, 2014 after he filmed
clashes between Muslims and Christians in central Egypt. He is accused of
filming a demonstration without obtaining government permission, a misdemeanor
crime that typically carries a maximum sentence of six months. Bishoy served six
months while waiting for conviction after his Dec. 4 arrest.
World
Watch Monitor reports the true reason for the extreme prison sentence most
likely lies in Bishoy’s history. In 2007, Bishoy, then Mohammed Hegazy,
petitioned the Egyptian government to change his official religious status, an
unprecedented move in a thoroughly Islamic society. Bishoy converted to
Christianity from Islam in 1999 at age 17. His public request to change his
religious status generated death threats and forced Bishoy and his family into
hiding.
After
spending several years in hiding, Bishoy’s wife and two children were able to
leave the country for asylum in Germany. Bishoy, however, chose to remain in
Egypt, knowing that if he left, he’d never be allowed back in his home country.
His own experience in hiding and being constantly followed by police made him
passionate for the rights of converts to Christianity. He spends his days
documenting abuses against Egyptian Christians and advocating for fair
treatment.
When
he was arrested, Bishoy was in southern Egypt filming clashes that resulted
after Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi was ousted from office in July
2013. Hundreds of Christians were attacked, some kidnapped and thousands of
churches and Christian businesses throughout the country were looted and
destroyed.
Bishoy’s
lawyer told World Watch Monitor that Bishoy is in good condition, though police
have questioned him about his religious status, which is totally unrelated to
the charge.
Bishoy
and his lawyer have filed an appeal against the conviction.
World
Watch Monitor stated that Liberal Muslim voices have found themselves cornered
by Al-Azhar’s professed role as guardian of orthodox Islam. Last January, a TV
presenter and researcher, Islam el-Behery, was sentenced to a year in prison for
arguing against canonical texts of Islam on a number of issues, including
apostasy.
World Watch Monitor reports it is the second time this Ramadan that
a statement by Egypt’s religious establishment has caused widespread reaction
among sectors of the Egyptian public, which is 90 percent Muslim.
The
online news outlet said that preceding the start of the Muslim fasting month,
the country’s fatwa issuing authority (Darul-Ifta) said on June 6 that to eat or
drink in public during Ramadan "cannot be included within the realm of personal
freedoms, but is a type of anarchy transgressing the sanctity of Islam.”
According
to the online report, the Grand Imam stressed that "in the Islamic world,
apostates are not being strung from the gallows in public squares," and stated
that the issue was being handled with "a flexible theology that emphasizes
creativity of thinking based on Sharia’s ethos."
World
Watch Monitor reported the published statement by el-Tayyib concluded by blaming
the West for "repelling people away from Islam," describing concerns over
women’s issues, apostasy, and Jihad as "defamation of Islam and Muslims."
Photo
captions: 1) al-Azhar University in Cairo (Courtesy World Watch Monitor). 2)
Mohammed Hegazy (Courtesy World Watch Monitor). 3) Michael
Ireland.
About the
Writer: Michael Ireland is a Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service,
as well as a volunteer Internet Journalist and Ordained Minister who has served
with ASSIST Ministries and ASSIST News Service since its beginning in 1989. He
has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China, and
Russia.
**
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